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Are you my dad? Am I my OWN dad!? |
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WARNING!! This Fantasy High NPC has grown up and had adventures past the initial Fantasy High and Fantasy High: Sophomore Year episodes. This page contains major plot spoilers for the The Seven campaign, so proceed at your own risk. |
"I've got nothing to say to you. See you next fall. Psyche, see you next Tuesday. And another thing! I have nothing to say but I have one more thing! Thank you because I've realized all those times I wanted a mom, I never fucking needed you. And another thing! All I really needed was a horse! Her name is Cinnamon! And another thing, she's more beautiful than you! And another thing, she's more of a mom than you could ever be! And another thing, you know what? I would have given you 100 points, but you're not perfect in any way. And another thing, I fucking love my horse. And another thing, I feel bad you never rode a fucking horse!" ― Katja Cleaver to her mother
Katja Cleaver is a student at Aguefort Adventuring Academy and a member of the Maidens adventuring party.
During Fantasy High and Fantasy High: Sophomore Year, she is an NPC played by Brennan Lee Mulligan. During The Seven, she is a PC played by Rekha Shankar.
Featured Episodes[]
| Episodes Featuring Katja as an NPC |
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Fantasy High
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| Live Shows |
| Episodes Featuring Katja as a PC |
The Seven
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Description[]
"Katja is a half orc battle master. It doesn't really matter when you wanna capture her, she's wearing her horse riding clothes. So she's got, you know, the riding pants, the riding boots. Some sort of oversize nondescript T-shirt to hide herself. A little riding helmet, long, curly, black frizzy braid. She's Asian too, let's go, South Asian." ― Rekha Shankar
Katja is a tall half orc with olive green skin and long black hair that she keeps up in a braid. She has a round, broad face and pointed ears. There is a slit in her left eyebrow, green eyes, and two elongated canine teeth that poke out from her bottom jaw. Katja wears a pink shirt with yellow hems on the sleeves and collar. She wears an identical shirt underneath. On the bottom Katja is wearing tan riding pants and tall brown riding boots.
The Fan[]
Rekha has a blue and white fan with a knife motif.
Background[]
Katja comes from a long lineage of famous half orc Solesian adventurers. Most recent in the line is her father Karl Cleaver, who is renowned for his adventuring skills and has a lot of connections in Solace and beyond. The family's fame has earned them a lot of money and adoration, even having an elementary school in Elmville named after them. Katja's mother Jana Cleaver left Katja and her father when Katja was a child. Between her absent mother and a father who is often away on business, Katja does not spend a lot of time with her biological family. Instead she is raised largely by her house staff, and spends time with her many horses.
As a child Katja was best friends with Antiope Jones, and the two would spend a lot of time together. Katja was on a champion equestrian team when she attended Oakshield Middle School.[1]
Fantasy High[]
She is one of the seven maidens who were taken to Kalvaxus's lair and saved by Sandra Lynn Faeth. Her only interaction was telling the Bad Kids that the Maidens were going to be a while with killing Kalvaxus for a second time.
The Seven[]
At the start of The Seven, she is a senior at Aguefort Adventuring Academy.
Party of Seven[]
In a flashback, Katja wakes along with the other maidens chained in Kalvaxus' lair. She is immediately concerned about her horse, Cinnamon. After escaping their chains and killing the guards, she and the other maidens explore the lair, and she is present when Talura drags Antiope Jones and Sam Nightingale towards the mirror. They are saved when Danielle Barkstock shatters the mirror and frees Talura. She and the rest of the maidens are taken home by Sandra Lynn Faeth.
In present time, Katja starts her day in her bedroom in Skullcleaver Manor, and heads down to their stables. She has a brief phone call with her father, Karl Cleaver, who informs her that he is on a mission to kill a demon lord and may not be back in time for her graduation. This is not the first time something like this has happened, as her father spends much of his time at work. Katja hides how much this news lets her down, because her father does everything for her, and she doesn't want to hurt him by showing that she is sad.
In or Out[]
At the Aguefort Adventuring Academy the next day, Katja and the maidens are called into a meeting with Principal Aguefort. He explains that their party will be broken up at the end of the year, due to 4 of the 7 maidens being set to graduate before the others. However, he tells them that the completion of a high class quest and a signature from the missing Tectonya Karkovnya would allow them all to graduate and continue adventuring together.
The group leaves to discuss their options and an argument breaks out about the idea of certain group members having other opportunities after graduation besides the group. Katja is hurt at the thought of being abandoned by more people in her life, but doesn't want to burden her friends with her own feelings. When Zelda leaves in tears, Katja follows to check on her and the two comfort each other (soon joined by Penny). Those three really hate confrontation.
That night, Katja searches her father's study for information about the missing Tectonya Karkovnya and accidentally stumbles across a portrait of her absent mother that her father held onto. Upset, she leaves for the stables and spends the night trying to write a response to the group chat. Eventually she simply texts that she is in.
She then travels with the rest of her party to Bastion City to follow the leads on Tectonya and meet Charity Blythe.
Big City Connections[]
After Antiope's initial meeting with Charity Blythe, Katja and the other maidens are alarmed to find an entity (revealed to be Talura) shadowing Antiope. They are unsure of how to solve this problem, so instead to focus on the missing Tectonya. Katja suggests that Antiope take the internship with the Ministry to gain more intel, which Ostentatia and the rest of the group agree to (to Katja's shock).
Before beginning their search, Katja and her party go to Slappy McFinnegan's to celebrate, though they are swiftly kicked out when Katja is unable to resist trying to brush the centaur waiter, Joseph (he just looks too much like a horse). Instead, they go to Slam Burger.
At Antiope's objection to being the group leader, Sam's compact is used to conjure a vision of the tattoo parlour in the Red Waste. Here, Antiope gets a tramp stamp saying "Leader" in a tasteful two fonts. Katja appears in this image as the one drawing the font options out in her notebook for the tattoo artist (perhaps due to her excellent penmanship).
Katja then travels to the Museum of Adventuring, accompanied by Penny, Ostentatia, and Zelda. They attempt to glean information about Tectonya's disappearance here. Their efforts gain advantage from Katja's position as the daughter of Karl Cleaver, a benefactor of the museum alongside Tectonya. Katja initially attempts to question the attendant at the information desk, but this can only turn up surface level information about the missing superintendent. Katja and Ostentatia then attempt to bypass a guard to access the limited museum content, though he remains immune to Ostentatia's charms. At this point Zelda knocks out the guard, allowing Katja and their friends to search for more clues beyond the door.
As Danielle reveals a trail of Tectonya's footsteps, Katja joins her party in following the path into the Mountains of Chaos towards the Temple of the Earth Defiant. During their journey, Katja and Cinnamon summon six more horses for the rest of her party to travel on. These are horses from Katja's favourite childhood book series The Babysitter Horse and consist of Taffodil, Alagonia, Starforge, Candyheart, Strawberry Dancer, and Snowfire.
Katja and the other maidens come upon a slaughtered village in the mountains, where Penny uncovers a mirror hidden under a bear hide. Through this mirror, they are spotted by a Queen Harpy, who pursues them with her daughters and ether beasts into the mountains.
She and her party begin to do battle with the Harpy Queen, Kurraghran, and their army of harpies and ether beasts as they attempt to reach sanctuary in the Temple of the Earth Defiant.
Stone Temple Pile-Up[]
Katja and her party begin this episode already engaged in combat with the Harpy Queen, Kurraghran, and various other harpies and ether beasts.
As her party charges over the bridge to reach the temple, Katja stays behind on Cinnamon to cover their retreat from the pursuing ether beasts. Protecting Cinnamon by diverting damage towards her horse onto herself, Katja bats an ether beast off the cliff and injures several others. Kurraghran attempts to rip her off her saddle, but while he does deal her significant damage he evidently underestimated a horse girl's bond with her horse, as Katja remains mounted.
As the ether beasts she is engaged with turn away from her to chase her fleeing party, Katja follows them. Leaping from her saddle onto the back of horse-sized ether beast, she injures it by stabbing it with its own tentacle claws. She can tell Cinnamon is unimpressed at her riding another mount in front of her. In the process, she knocks another ether beast off the ledge to its death.
She and her party manage to clear the bridge and reach the safety of the temple, though she remains somewhat distracted by her bafflement at Candyheart's scrapbooking club in which they only review other people's scrapbooks.
Trivia[]
- Katja is proficient in dragonchess.[1]
- Despite being a fighter, Brennan refers to her as a half-orc barbarian in Fantasy High LIVE at RTX Austin (she is also a lvl 1 barbarian as of The Seven).
- Brennan posted Katja's character sheet on his Twitter as a reward for reaching the 250 voter registrations milestone during CollegeHumor's Voter Registration Drive.[1] However, as of The Seven, the character sheet is no longer accurate.[2]
- She and Antiope Jones grew up together and for fun braided her horses' hair. When she got older, Katja also did this with Penny Luckstone. She also did this with the farrier. She also did this with-[3]
- Horses are Katja's favorite animal, hobby, and concept.[4]
- A centaur, to Katja, may strike her as a horse with a mistake on top.[4]
- Katja has extremely good penmanship. Her calligraphy teacher assumed it was because they were a good teacher, but it's actually because she's seasoned in writing letters* while riding horseback, so she can have good handwriting in any situation. *letters to other horses[5]
- Katja wears two shirts. And yes, they are the same shirt.[6]
- Katja identifies as Indian, presumably from either her father (as he has magical henna tattoos on his arms) or both parents.
- Katja’s mother left Katja and her father when she was very young, though exactly when is unknown. Her mother was a ministry agent assigned to keep an eye on Katja's father, and when her cover was blown she was taken off his detail. She did not return for her daughter.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Twitter, October 2, 2020: https://twitter.com/BrennanLM/status/1312172966352879616
- ↑ Andrew Bridgeman, Dropout Discord, 28 July, 2021: "they are extremely inaccurate now" https://discord.com/channels/468488285686202369/869255433041354862/870069134153637898
- ↑ Rekha Shankar, Twitter, 14 August 2021: https://twitter.com/rekhalshankar/status/1426690215184244736?
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Rekha Shankar, Twitter, 14 August 2021: https://twitter.com/rekhalshankar/status/1426691144105168896
- ↑ Rekha Shankar, Twitter, 15 August 2021, https://twitter.com/rekhalshankar/status/1427005592514662400
- ↑ Rekha Shankar, Twitter, 17 August, 2021: https://twitter.com/rekhalshankar/status/1427785822451888128